Another Tabuk cooperative arrives

By Estanislao Albano, Jr.

TABUK CITY, Kalinga – Albeit not yet in the league of Tabuk Multi-purpose Cooperative (TAMPCO) which has passed the half billion peso mark in assets, Tabuk Farmers’ Multi-purpose Cooperative (TAFAMULCO) is rising to the ranks of Cordillera cooperatives.
General Manager Emilio Dulnuan said that in the latest rankings, the cooperative which has P90M in assets as of the end of last year has already broken into the top 25 cooperatives in the region assets-wise.
Dulnuan said that their last assets amount represents a 22 percent growth over the total assets of 2009, the same percentage of growth the cooperative posted in the two preceding years.
He revealed that the share capital of the cooperative also increased by 22 percent in 2010. The cooperative has P30.1M share capital as of December 31, 2010 as compared to the P24.4M in the previous year.
Dulnuan said that in 2010, the membership of the cooperative also grew by 13 percent which translates to 309 new members bringing the total number of members to 2,674.
“TAFAMULCO is gathering strength as evidenced by the significant increase in membership. The coming in of more and more members shows that the cooperative is now established and has the confidence of the public,” Dulnuan said.
Dulnuan dates back the increased trust of the community to six years ago when the cooperative moved from its rented offices in the old Goodwill Hospital building in the United Church of Christ in the Philippines compound in barangay Magsaysay to its own building in a lot it procured in barangay Casigayan.
Dulnuan strongly believes that the P3.5M-worth two-storey building provided the proof that the cooperative is now strong and capable which the public was looking for.
Dulnuan also informed that the cooperative has no problems with liquidity.
“We have P36M in the bank. P20M of this could be considered as idle funds as the balance is reserved for any eventuality,” Dulnuan said.
Dulnuan said that this is a complete reversal of the situation from 1997 to 2001 when the devastation wrought by the El Nino phenomenon caused the delinquency rate to spiral from 6.52 percent to 37 percent thereby forcing the cooperative to borrow from various sources so it could continue serving its members.
TAFAMULCO was born on September 23,1985 when farmer members of the UCCP-Tabuk bonded themselves into the informal association Tabuk Farmers Inputs Loan Association with an initial membership of 66 all of whom were members of the church.
Later, however, the association threw its doors open to the whole community accepting members regardless of religion, tribe, social status and political color.
The initial seed money of the association consisted of the P150,000.00 grant from the Asean American Free Labor Institute.
On January 25,1990, the TAFILA was registered with the government as a cooperative and renamed as TAFAMULCO.**